Academic spouts dress code drivel
I'm not sure where to begin in expressing the explosive spit-out-my-coffee reaction to Rouhollah Aghasaleh's guest column ("Watching hemlines, not teaching skills," Opinion, Jan. 5.) His absurd comparison of Islamist states' violation of women and their human rights to the maintenance of decorum and professionalism in U.S. classrooms would be laughable if he weren't deadly serious.
Whether we like it or not, the exposed body, be it male or female, does create responses: emotional, physical, biological, etc. To deny this is delusional. If a male teacher stood in front of a class with an exposed belly, half-buttoned shirt or a short kilt, the responses would be the same, leading to a sexualized situation. The fact that women have been demeaned and sexualized forever is reason enough not to further their exploitation in the classroom. And to assume greater or lesser square inches of exposed skin affects the rankings of states and nations of women in government is just about the most sexist statement I’ve ever heard.
REBECCA NOELL,WOODSTOCK
Rebuilding teaching is vital, complex
Maureen Downey’s column on the decline of Georgians going into education (“Teaching is tough,” Opinion, Jan. 5) reminded me of something I heard in 1989. My son was graduating from Duke University, and the commencement speaker was John Brademas, president of New York University. His main focus was on the precipitous decline in the average educational achievement level of teachers over the last decades (the 1970s and 80s).
Until the 1970s, highly intelligent and educated women really had only two career paths widely available: nursing and teaching. That all changed very quickly. The fields of medicine, law and finance opened up quickly and offered great upward mobility. Of course, there were other factors. Turning many of our school systems into affirmative-action jobs programs, the power of teacher unions, the breakdown of the family and discipline in a large segment of society, and social experimentation in “teaching methodology” were all at work, too.
The only hope for public education is for a complete reworking. Break the power of the unions and bloated administration. Return to a culture of discipline and learning in the classroom. And pay enough to attract and retain better teachers. It’s a very complicated mess now, and it won’t be fixed overnight. And it won’t be fixed by the people who are a part of the problem.
GRANT ESSEX, WOODSTOCK
Luckovich wields a mighty pencil
Mike Luckovich is simply the best (Opinion, Jan. 8). He drew a statement of depth and freedom with Delacroix’s Lady Liberty unfurling a banner of FREE SPEECH in one hand while holding firmly to a sharpened pencil in the other, in the midst of confusion.
MARTHA WAYT, CUMMING
